We are the Capital
“May the Odds ever be in your Favour”
– Hunger Games quote meaning you have almost no chance of survival
If you have not read the dystopian teen-age angst trilogy “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins you are in for a treat. It is tale of a young people being forced to slaughter each other in a high-tech Roman empire style arena to keep “Peace” within the society. If you don’t like reading, watch the movies, which stay true to the novels, and you will be impressed by the amazing acting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen – the traumatized heroine who personifies teen age confusion.
Housing in District 12
In the book the social structure has a “Capital” exploiting 12 “Districts” which each specialize in supplying a particular resource. Our heroine, Katniss, lives in the smallest and least important District #12 which supplies coal. The people in the Capital are portrayed as decadent, spoiled, self-indulgent, self-absorbed brats who gladly watch children slaughter each other for the sake of “Peace” – that is a “Peace” which maintains their opulence and the abuse and marginal living standard in the 12 Districts. It is a very thinly disguised portrayal of our current world socio-economic system.
A typical Capital citizen
Now this is all a very obvious and transparent critique of our world today and how we in the rich world exploit and abuse those in the 3rd world. Nothing new there. Sadly, since the dawn of civilization it has always been thus. Because of this historical fact groups like the Deep Green Resistance [ https://deepgreenresistance.org/ ] believe all civilizations based upon agriculture requiring the destruction of vast areas of land to feed large populations are a failed social model. Now I personally would not go that far; for example, if we had towns and villages with a permaculture approach to farming and used local energy and local resources I could see a sustainable “civilization”. But that’s not the point of today’s essay. The main point I want to make is because of the example of the conflicted heroine Katniss the spoiled brats in the Capital [that’s us] start, for the first time, to see that they are the problem. The younger people in the Capital start to admire her and not see her as enemy but somebody to emulate. The girls copy her hair styling. The adults start to work with those in the Districts interested in a revolution to overthrown the social order.
Our young people seem to be following this example. They no longer believe in the moral superiority of our culture. They see, but don’t know how to change, the rottenness of our socio-economic system. Yet they feel helpless and powerless. Which they are – unless they team up with older people like us. This, by the way, is exactly what happens in the movie. The youth provide the emotional drive and the older one provide the strategic thinking and resources to make the revolution a reality.
Well it seems pretty obvious after this farce of COP conference which is led by a top oil executive in a country reliant upon oil exports for its very survival. What a joke. What an obvious example of those in the status quo, of those in the “Capital” insisting that “justice and fairness” means continuing the system as it is. Here are the exact words so you can clear how absurdly Hollywood like our real world is.
So, let’s admit that we are the Capital. Somehow even little old Canada, once “the greatest country in the world” in terms of quality of life and fairness, has turned into the bad guy. Personally, that’s hard to take. I saw us a beacon of sanity and justice and fair play and equal opportunity for all. No more. We are the Capital. And just like in the Hunger Games, all it will take is a spark for the Revolution to start, and then the world will Catch on Fire. All we have to do is join in.
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